Maintaining first-class services for Crawley

Maintaining excellent leisure and cultural services for the town during a time when government funding in the area is set for big cuts remains a top priority for Crawley Borough Council.

In October 2009 the council started an Options Appraisal exercise. This is exploring every possible option for Crawley's council-owned leisure and cultural facilities, including The Hawth theatre, Tilgate Nature Centre, Tilgate Lake, four adventure playgrounds and community centres.

Crawley Borough Council has one of the highest rates of expenditure per resident on leisure and cultural services.

The review, set to be complete by the autumn, will enable the council to make full and informed decisions on how best to deliver and improve these services while continuing to make financial savings for the public.

One option being considered is public/private partnerships, a model which has already proved highly successful for various services including K2 Crawley, managed by not-for-profit organisation Freedom Leisure, and Tilgate Golf Course, managed by Glendale.

The partnerships have seen public satisfaction levels soar while hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money has been saved; all of which is put back into delivering quality services and means the council can commit to projects like providing a new museum.

Since K2 Crawley opened its doors in 2005 visitor numbers have shot up from around 650,000 to more than 1.3 million in 2008/9. The centre is one of the best in the country and last week achieved 84 per cent in an inspection by QUEST, the UK quality scheme for sport and leisure, giving K2 Crawley an 'Excellent' rating and putting it in the top five per cent of the country.

Decisions are not expected until the end of the year.